Posted on 03/14/2014 10:02:23 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows
A woman has given birth to a baby with two heads in a hospital in northern India.
The baby, or rather babies, are conjoined twins – two girls who have separate spinal cords, necks and heads but share the same set of organs and limbs.
Urmila Sharma, 28, from Haryana province did not know she had twins until two weeks before the birth because she could not afford to pay for ultrasound scans.
Doctors fear that the twins, who have a condition known as dicephalic parapagus, will be lucky to survive.
‘The parents are very distressed and we are helping the family the best we can,’ explained Doctor Shikha Malik, who delivered the babies.
Born via C-section at Cygnus JK Hindu hospital yesterday morning, doctors say the twins cannot be separated because they share so many key body parts.
‘We only came to know she was carrying conjoined twins after an ultrasound two weeks ago but it was too late to do anything by then,’ added Dr Malik.
There is hope however that the twins could survive and adapt to their condition thanks to the inspiration of Abigail and Brittany Hensel – twins with dicephalic parapagus in the US that have lived into their twenties.
Dr Malik explained: ‘Now the baby is born we will do our best to save her and we hope to operate once her condition is more stable.’
Conjoined twins are quite rare with an estimated prevalence of somewhere between 1:50,000 and 1:200,000 births.
(Excerpt) Read more at metro.co.uk ...
So sad. With the babies being born in India, they probably don’t have much chance as evidenced by the condition of the facility (paneling on the wall!) and the adult size oxygen mask being used on the babies :(
“hope to operate once her condition is more stable”
I guess I’m just dense, but it doesn’t sound like, from the description of shared organs, there is much that can be done.
Poor babies.
Two heads are better than one?
Prayers for the little ones.
Probably wants to do some internal clean-up to let their organs function better - restructuring partially-divided organs and so forth. I’m no physician, though.
Amen.
OK, I was thinking it too.
“doctors say the twins cannot be separated because they share so many key body parts.”
Duh. I doubt even one of them could live if the other was removed. They have the same birthday and will no doubt have the same approximate time of death as well, God willing that be a long time from now. They are not the only ones to share this condition, by the way. There are twins I read about living in the U.K. with almost the exact same.
Also the Frankel twins in the US, as mentioned in the article.
Whoops! Hensel, not Frankel!
There are the Abigail and Brittany Hensel who were born here in the US with 2 heads. They are leading a normal life. Thank God these special angels were not aborted simply because they do not look like the rest of us. God Bless these parents.
Oh my..
Carnival Freak Show meets the internet.
I’m not going.
Indeed.
I feel sorry for the guy that marries her !
I have very mixed feelings about such births as these, but for now, I will pray for the family, and keep my personal reactions to myself. I can’t believe they didn’t see this before, unless the mother is one of those women who goes through her pregnancy without ongoing doctor’s care. Maybe the family couldn’t afford all those tests and office visits.
A devastating turn of events.
You mean “guys” - “she” is two distinct individuals.
Prayers for them and the family.
... in the excerpt provided, which I briefly skimmed:
This is India
This is extreme poverty
... so no, regular doctor’s visits were not a priority.
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